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The time has come. On June 27th, Bill Gates will stop commuting to Microsoft’s Redmond campus on a daily basis, and begin full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. You probably know that for Bill, retirement doesn’t mean what it meant for your dear old granddad. He will still visit his Redmond office…
The Sharper Image is supposed to be dead. No more overpriced Ionic Breezes or contraptions that simultaneously polishes your shoes and balls to a luxurious, silky shine. Dead. Yet it’s alive. Their site is up with a mysterious new message: “SORRY TO KEEP YOU IN THE DARK. BUT THERE’S SOMETHING BIG COMING. SOON.” Dear readers,…
We already know plenty about the upcoming WM 6.1 powered Treo 800W, but if a leak obtained by Phone Arena is correct, the device will be available to corporate customers starting on July 9th, with the general public following four days later. It will also be priced at $599 without commitments. [Phone Arena via Electronista]…
I know how it is with you man-you see that “Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny” tray and it is all “take, take, take!” Well your days of penny pinching are over now that SteathVue has developed their Pennycam. What they have done is to embed a security camera inside the tray that relays upward angled video to a…
Somehow I doubt that many Gizmodo readers are concerned about getting a DTV converter before the February 2009 cutoff date-but then again, I’ve been surprised before. If you or someone you know falls into this category, Sound & Vision has taken the liberty of pitting the top three DTV converter boxes against one another to…
Financial Times has probably the most in-depth Steve Ballmer interview in a while for Bill Gates’ retirement party. A lot of it is spent on his obsession with search. But there are some savory sprinkles in the mix. Like, unless the board tosses him, we’ve got nine more years of shouty, sweaty Photoshops to look…
Click to viewThere are moments in which, for whatever reason, being it a scientific discovery, a voyage into the unknown, or somebody’s excessive alcohol intake, humanity advances one step forward into its destiny, a final state of clarity and peace that will take us all to the stars. This moment complies with the three reasons.…
Fans of British sci-fi favo(u)rite Doctor Who might be wary of conscripting a Dalek to do security work for them, but if you enjoy a little REC-ORD-ING along with your EXT-ERM-IN-AT-ION, you can now do just that. Wil Harris of ChannelFlip got to play with the Dalek security cam, which was built by a "top…
Already available on the three biggest US carriers, the only way to make the Centro a bigger hit is to sell it unlocked-and that’s what Palm is doing, for $299. It’s only in white, though. You can pick it up online at Palm’s site. Also, starting tomorrow, they’ll be offering Google Maps with My Location…
We have seen some awesome sinks over the years, and at least one that was inspired by geology and topographical maps. The Ammonite washbasin from HighTech features a similar “organic” theme, but in my opinion, a much more captivating design. Apparently, Ammonites are an extinct species of cephalopods that existed about 400 million years ago,…
So you think you’re a pretty mean air hockey player, do you? Well, are you good enough to take on a robot programmed to do nothing but destroy you in air hockey? When you take into consideration that this robot won’t get drunk and sloppy and won’t trash talk, it starts to look better than…
There might be more to Snow Leopard than meets the eye, as rumors have emerged outlining tremendous cuts in application size for 10.6. Mail.app will drop from 287MB to 91MB, iChat from 111MB to 52MB, and iCal from 89MB to 48MB. Cuts are practically universal, with already small apps like the 13MB Calculator, 15MB Image…
You know how sometimes your toast doesn’t quite pop out of the toaster fully? And because your judgment is a little impaired that early in the morning, you decide to jam a fork in there to dig it out only to be electrocuted and rushed to the hospital? Sure, we have all been there. However,…
As a Netflix lover, I’m sad to see account profiles and queues go away after August. That’s because I’ve always used them to keep Lisa’s movie choices (morbid documentaries, foreign tragedies, stoner flicks) separate from mine (scifi, fantasy, action, romantic comedies). What’s going to happen to Netflix’s amazing recommendation engine once it has to deal…
This past Saturday, Matt, Benny, Summer Intern Dan, Wilson and I gathered at Wilson’s idyllic upstate New York home to test out five of this summer’s top water guns via an epic battle. The results and full testing breakdown will be coming later this week, but here’s a little taste of what water guns, a…
While most of us aren’t important/good looking enough for anyone to spy on, the Laser Surveillance Defeater allows us to at least pretend for a moment or two. While much of audio surveillance functions by picking up voices through windows, the $70 Surveillance Defeater can jam these signals. Sticking to your window of choice via…
Boy Genius has the details on a mystery Motorola phone codenamed Alexander, which is supposedly Moto’s last-ditch effort: Word is that if this special ops phone doesn’t light the world on fire, Motorola goes up for sale. Personally, the phone described by these specs (though way beyond today’s ZN5) is not one I would base…
Luxury pens make for a peculiarly classic gadget. Instead of being driven by the latest microprocessor manufacturing techniques, pens innovate purely on design alone-mechanics at their most simple. And this Conway Stewart Evolution pen features a mechanical trick that took three years to develop. The user can adjust the pen’s center of gravity from the…
As promised last year, T-Mobile is finally reducing its early termination fees, so breaking your contract to get some actual 3Gness won’t pound you quite as hard. Instead of declining month-by-month, the fee goes down in weird increments. https://gizmodo.com/t-mobile-to-start-prorating-early-termination-fees-next-320048 If you’ve got 180-91 days left, the ETF penalty drops to $100. 90 days or less,…
That PlayStation 3 with its PlayStation Network has been around for a while now, but Sony is juuusst getting their act together enough to produce and distribute PSN cards. To most of us with credit cards, these Sony gift cards (good for purchasing downloadable games from the PlayStation Network) are no big deal. But for…